Hey everyone! Its that time of the year again when its too cold to ride and the team picks new members to lead the team. Luckily I had the chance to become Vice President of the team! I am looking to make some big changes to the team by getting the team more involved in the wake community. I am encouraging other riders to check us out on Facebook and give us a follow on Instagram to see what new adventures our team will encounter in the 2014 season. We have a team full of stacked up and coming riders that are stoked on the sport. Unfortunately, we are in a financial struggle after the end of this season which is threatening the existence of our team for the future riders that are looking to join the team. We are looking for any help that the wakeboard community is willing to offer and anything will be much appreciated!

I mean it's winter and all, but maybe try fundraising such as having a few wake films or some snowboard films and just invite everyone possible 5 dollars at the door! Then more for drinks and fun stuff this promotes the wake team ,have a good time, and raise money! Also as a senior in high school I've been riding with cwu wake team for a few years. It made me want to go there and ride, attend college there so maybe try and go to some more comps around Cali and get the word out more around your local scene. Just some ideas!

When I was with CCAW down at Cal Poly SLO there was a $25 membership fee assessed twice a year and that got you the new shirt, stickers and an invite to all the fun stuff we had going on. It also got you a cheaper tow ticket than a non-member on ride days. Only members could go on our big houseboat and snowboard trips and we never really had a $ issue. We also did lots of fun parties like Thrift Store Formal, Ugly Sweater, Anything Goes But Clothes, Take the Boats to the Drive-In Night, etc. Basically the key is to get people invested in the club beyond wakeboarding, the more people you get stoked, the more people you have to work hard for you.

Responders need to realize it 's not like it used to be, and unfortunately the bigger you get, as well as just with the times changing, you can't legally do what you have suggested, and it jeopardizes the team's future even more. In some schools, charging for that drink will get a boot from the sport club council, or anything relating the team to alcohol. The Free-ride Friday's sounds like a great idea and opportunity to grow the team, but what about insurance? Not saying these effect Chico State, I just think people would be surprised at all the red tape involved nowadays.

That said, the seniors on the team can host a party, and it not be affiliated with the club. It's also the holidays, and I'm sure there are plenty of parents and relatives that would order a shirt or two..

Why don't you guys host car washes every other weekend or start a program where the team goes out and does some work for donations. I know that doesn't sound fun, but you have to work hard to play hard. I unfortunately had a friend pass away a few years back and we did a car wash for a funeral fundraiser. We raised almost $1,000 in one day and it was not from bulk family donations, simply people driving by and getting their cars washed. If you have anyone on the team that is seriously a good rider, start doing some lessons at a fee (profitable of course). While there may be some red tape involved with that, I'm sure a thoroughly typed waiver would really help. Talk to the school as well, see if they will allow your team to do work around the campus and in return be compensated for your time and everything be applied to the wake program. When it comes to raising money there are truly endless options, you just have to be creative and while car washes aren't the most creative, they've proven to be a profitable fundraiser.

Talk to a local restaurant and do a Wake Team Night where they donate a portion of the nights profits to the club. Then have everyone show up and spend money.

What does the school provide the club? Down in SLO we realized that the restrictions of the school made it very difficult to operate so we created a 501c3 non-profit and just handled everything ourselves. Ride days and tournaments were insured by the WWA and was affordable. Down here we relied on private boats and the ride days basically broke even after paying for gas and insurance.

The unfortunate truth is that despite having a team of riders, you need to attract the newbies that want learn and are willing to pay. Do a Girls Ride Day, do a Learn To Ride Day, do a Bring a Roommate Day. Basically you need to be bigger than the team, you need to get the entire student body involved.

talon- thats a good idea we can maybe do something like that when prime or alsur comes out.

micheal- we do that but we charge 20(set) for non members to ride. I think we are going to have a sororities ride day so that should help us out.

adub- we've made some shirts and sent out letters for donations (its a tax right off).

daveo- we've thought about car washes and probably will do it. we make a little bit when non members ride and all ways give them tips/lessons. talking to the campus for jobs might be do able but there are a lot of clubs out there. ill definitely ask about it though.

stephan- we did that with one of the pizza shops 25% of the proseeds went to us, made us some money. The school covers the insurance and registration for the boat so thats good, but we pay for storage for the boat at villa lagos

we are planning on try to buy a boat since leasing one is pretty difficult, because honestly not many people want to lease a boat to bunch of college kids. we had a MB tomcat last semester (Fall, 2013) which was awesome but we payed a lot for it. It was gone for a least a month and we pay monthly. i think we will try to rent it out again for spring but for less and then in the fall try to find a nautique 2001 or sport nautique.

also to note we have some really good riders on the team justin payton, taylor fredrickson, ryan block, and max morgan. we are currently ranked 5th out of 24 teams.